DP Ruto entangled in the 700 laptops saga
14th August, 2018
Over 700 laptops and three vehicles with fake government stickers were Monday recovered in an operation targeting conmen operating from a house in Loresho, Nairobi.
Seven suspects were arrested from the house.
More suspects including an aspirant who lost in Kwanza constituency in western Kenya in 2017 elections were being sought over the incident.
Police said the man had rented the house.
“He and his co accused have been importing the laptops using the DP’s name and conning unsuspecting suppliers,” said an officer who was at the site.
Police said they also found the taxman’s stickers in the house.
A document found in the house show suspects had signed a deal of lending goods worth Sh317 million.
The operation was conducted by officers attached to the Deputy President’s office backed by those from Flying Squad.
The seized vehicles have stickers similar to those that DP Ruto uses in his convoy. Police declared the four-wheel drive cars do not belong to the government.
“They imposed stickers to show they are government cars. We have established the cars do not belong to the government,” said another officer.
Preliminary findings had shown suspects used fake LPOs to con members of the public claiming that it was the DP’s office that was procuring the goods.
A man walked to Athi River police station last week and complained he had supplied the laptops to a house in the area but the receivers had since changed their location.
He said the receivers were using vehicles with stickers showing they operate from the DP’s office.
It was then police visited the DP’s office and were able to trace the gadgets to the apartment along Kyuna Road in Loresho.
This was after the complainant identified some of the suspects and provided their mobile phones and registration numbers of the cars they were using.
The team investigating the incident raided the house and seized the gadgets and other valuables.
Police say the same gang had in 2015 conned unsuspecting suppliers of gadgets at a conference at KICC in Nairobi.
The case on the KICC issue is pending in court.
The gadgets were still in their boxes when the team of police arrived there on Monday.
